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Z the twenty-sixth and last letter in our alphabet, is derived through the
Greek _zeta_, from _zayin_, the seventh Semitic letter--its sound a voiced
sibilant, either a voiced _s_ as in 'zeal,' or a voiced _sh_ as in
'azure.'--The _cedilla_ (_ç_) is a 'little _zed_,' as is implied by the
Italian name _zediglia_, from _zeticula_.
ZABIAN, z[=a]'bi-an, _adj._ and _n._ the same as SABIAN.--_ns._
Z[=A]'BAISM, Z[=A]'BISM, the doctrines esp. of the Pseudo-ZABIANS, or
Syrian Zabians (in Haurân, Edessa, Bagdad), remnants of the ancient Syrian
but Hellenised heathens, from about the 9th to the 12th century. Under the
name _Zabians_ used to be grouped several peoples distinct in origin and by
no means alike in religion. The medieval Arabic and Jewish writers called
nearly all those heathens or _Sabæans_ who were neither Jews or Christians,
nor Mohammedans or Magians. Now the name _Sabæans_ denotes strictly the
ancient inhabitants of southern Arabia, who were but little modified by
Babylonian influences; the _Zabians_ of the Koran were originally
non-Christian Gnostics--the ancestors of the still existing Mandæans (q.v.)
or Joannes' Christians.